The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had made donations of homemade quilts a priority, and then the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, 2011, making the need even more acute. Twin and Full size quilts are in especially great need. Following are the specifications for donating quilts for disaster relief:

Materials: Use cotton or cotton/polyester blend or flannel (pre-shrink fabric if necessary). Please don’t use denim or corderoy, since they are heavy to ship and slow to dry when wet. Use 8 ounce polyester bonded batting. If quilt is tied, then use 3 or 4 ply yarn or heavy Cro-sheen for ties.

Guidelines: Quilts may be tied or quilted by hand or machine. Strength and durability are important. If quilts are pieced, make sure all seams are secured with 1/2 inch seams.

For tied quilts: Ties should be about 4 inches apart. Stitch should be about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch on the bottom. Mark using chalk and make sure that stitches will fully cover the mark when tied. Use double thread of either yarn or Cro-sheen. Square knots or International stitch are preferred. Knots should only show on one side of the quilt, with stitches only on the bottom. Please make sure knots cannot be pulled out.

Binding: The binding should be carefully done by hand or machine. There are two suggested methods. The Pillow Case Method: This can be done without a quilt frame. With right sides together, lay the top and bottom of the quilt on a flat surface. Lay batting on top, pin and sew three sides. Turn right side out and fold in the open end. Top-stitch around all four edges. Sew another row of stitching 1 inch in from the outer edge to secure the batting. The Roll Method: Trim the excess batting to allow you to bring the bottom of the quilt over the top piece, using the roll hem method. Pin and sew with a sturdy stitch.

If you have questions regarding this information please call the Humanitarian Center at 1-800-453-3860 ext. 26060 or you may call locally at 801-240-6060. With all items please remember QUALITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN QUANTITY.

The Church welcomes donations to your local Deseret Industries store of new and gently used items, including clothing, household items and books. Much of the clothing donated to Deseret Industries is used for international relief efforts by the Church and its partner organizations.

Visit the official newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”) for Mormon news and information about how The Church relieves suffering throughout the world.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is structured uniquely following the pattern of Christ’s ancient Church. This structure enables the Church to quickly assess needs at the time of emergencies or disasters, and to quickly provide aid. Here are some insights into how that works.

Like the ancient church, the Mormon Church has a lay clergy. Remember that Christ called His apostles not from the body of priests or scribes of the day, but He called them from their walks of life to serve the Church. They were fishermen, even tax collectors. When the early church grew to the point that it was too large for the ministrations of the Twelve, seventy men were called to assist them. The New Testament cites many lay members who gave service unselfishly to the Church. Members nurtured and kept track of each other. Revelation through the Holy Ghost to the highest leaders, and personal revelation through the Holy Ghost to lay members, helped them to minister for the good of all. This is how the Mormon Church works today. The structure holds all over the world, so every Latter-day Saint knows how to organize for the good of his neighbor and his area.

On the most personal level, there are what is known as “home teachers” and “visiting teachers.” Home teachers are a pair of men who hold priesthood power in the Church (as most men do). They are assigned two or three families to watch over. Once a month, the men visit the families, give them a spiritual message, and assess their needs. Should an emergency occur in a family, the home teachers are their first point of contact for help. Visiting Teachers are a pair of women affiliated with the relief society, or women’s auxiliary. Like the home teachers do for entire families, they visit and care for the women in the ward or branch. A ward is a congregation organized from a neighborhood area. Branches are organized when there are not enough local Latter-day Saints to form a ward. A branch is run by a lay member called as a Branch President. He calls two counselors to help him. A ward is run by a bishop and his two counselors. A group of wards is managed as a stake by a stake president and two counselors. All of the auxiliaries for youth, children, priesthood holders, and women also have leaders.

In an emergency, a bishop can assess the needs and welfare of the members in his ward by having the home teachers and visiting teachers check on the families they are responsible for. When the bishop has a full report, he passes it on to his stake president. The stake president can then assess the needs of the members in the stake and pass on the report to the area presidency. The area presidency can then pass on the report to the central leadership of the Church. The mission president can also mobilize the missionaries in the area after local needs have been assessed.

Church members are trained to be self-sufficient and to lay aside stores of food, water, clothing, tools, and fuel as they are able. Thus, they are usually better prepared for emergencies than their non-member neighbors. They assess the needs in their neighborhoods among their neighbors who are not Mormons, and report on these needs to their home teachers and visiting teachers, who can relay the report to the bishops. Once the information is relayed to the central leadership of the Church, action can be taken, and help is given from the top down. Because everyone knows his responsibility, aid is organized and delivered where it needs to go very quickly.

An example is the aid given after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Local Mormon leaders played a critical role in getting relief to their congregations and their neighbors.

“Immediate help was sent by the church to members and non-members and was distributed under the direction of the local priesthood and Relief Society leaders,” said Elder Francisco Viñas, the church area president based in Santo Domingo. “They not only received medical aid, food, water and other basic supplies, but they also received counsel, guidance and comfort from their local leaders.”

Elder Viñas organized a church committee for the area composed of the two stake presidents, the mission president, an area welfare representative and the Relief Society leaders. Coordination with local church leaders in Haiti was crucial in helping church headquarters in Salt Lake City determine what the most essential needs were.

“After the earthquake I got all the bishops together for a meeting. I knew that we needed to organize the local priesthood leaders and work together,” said Prosner Colin, president of the Port-au-Prince Haiti Stake, one of the two stakes in Haiti. “The nine chapels in and around Port-au-Prince were mostly undamaged — another remarkable miracle,” said Elder Wilford W. Andersen at the recently concluded 180th Annual General Conference of the Church. “During the weeks that followed the earthquake, they became shelters for over 5,000 Haitians and bases from which food, water, and medical attention were distributed. Basic needs were met, and order began to emerge out of chaos.”

Local church leaders worked to complete a head count of members of their own congregations and formulated an assessment of their needs. Despite the devastation in their homeland, order quickly returned to Mormon congregations in Haiti. Patrick Reese, manager of planning and administration in the Humanitarian Services Department of the church, said “The (church) leaders knew the principles of welfare, of communication and self-reliance long before the catastrophic event occurred and they knew how to implement these principles for the benefit of their members.”

“We let the members know that even if the situation is difficult…we (as leaders) need to go out and help them,” said Colin. “We taught our members about self-reliance. We let them understand that because we are alive we have to take care of ourselves. We need to continue to work to bring food for our families and for others.”

In response to the Haitian requests, “Emergency response supplies, including water, water purification supplies, food, tents and tarps were shipped by air from the United States,” explained Reese. “Other needed items were already on the ground in the Dominican Republic.”

Since the earthquake, the church has sent 1.4 million pounds of aid to Haiti and the Dominican Republic in addition to teams of doctors who treated patients in Mormon meetinghouses after the quake.

Relief supplies were delivered to a rented Haitian warehouse, a facility made available by a local contractor who had done previous construction work for the church. The contractor also provided trucks and vans to help distribute the essential supplies. Teams of priesthood leaders assisted in the distribution of the supplies.

Getting back to work is a significant part of the recovery process now, explained Ferron Squires, director of Agricultural Production Services for the church. “An employment specialist, Noel Mackenson, organized an office in the Centrale (meetinghouse) in Port-au-Prince,” Squires said. “He works with bishops and other church leaders to get names of people seeking work opportunities and is able to pair the job applicants with positions primarily in the United Nations-sponsored “cash-for-work” program. Other support groups such as Catholic Relief Services and MercyCore hire workers at a basic wage, enabling them to earn some income to support their families.”

In addition to kits, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) distributes other needed items that volunteers may provide. Your donation will represent the Church. Please ensure that quality and
appearance reflect appropriate high standards.

Orphanage Modules
A special module with quilts, various supplies, toys and children’s clothing is distributed to orphanages throughout the world. Instructions for most of the items listed below may be found at www.humanitarianservices.org
All items must be un-used.

Many of us see suffering in our own communities and throughout the world. We want to do something to help, but don’t know what to do.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught:

A true Latter-day Saint is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this Church or in any other or in no church at all, wherever he finds them.
(Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 732) Read more

Flannel:
Method 1
Cut two 36×36 – 45×45 inch squares of cotton flannel. Serge the edges with right sides facing out. Sew large ‘X’ corner to corner or a 10 inch square in the center to keep fabric from shifting.

Method 2
· Cut two 36×36 – 45×45 inch squares of cotton flannel. Place the squares together with right sides facing in. Sew squares together with a ¼ inch seam around the edges, leaving a 6 inch opening. Turn right sides out. Baste opening and topstitch around entire blanket for durability. Sew a large ‘X’ corner to corner or a 10 inch square in the center to keep the fabric in place.

For questions, please call the Center at 1-800-453-3860 ext. 26060. The official Church site is lds.org/humanitarian.

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Mormon Church Humanitarian Aid

Since 1985 the LDS Church has given cash and material donations in the value of $1.3 billion for humanitarian aid around the world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides aid for relief and development projects, immediate and long-term disaster relief, and ongoing projects, such as neonatal resuscitation training, clean water projects, wheelchair distribution, vision treatment, and measles vaccinations. The Church often pairs with other charitable organizations to expedite its relief efforts, operating without regard to the nationality or religion of the recipients.

This website is not owned by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church. The views expressed by individual users are the responsibility of those users and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church. For the official Church websites, please visit LDS.org or Mormon.org.